Jessie Ware Centers Herself With ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’

Onstage at Webster Hall in New York last fall, Jessie Ware glided through choreography in a faux-fur-trimmed turquoise caftan, and later swung a black whip while singing the title track from her 2020 disco LP, “What’s Your Pleasure?” Backstage, however, was a different vibe.

“I had a bat mitzvah lesson in my dressing room,” the British singer and songwriter, 38, said in an interview last month. “That’s when your worlds are colliding.”

Ware has become an expert at hilariously exposing the gap between the luxuriousness of her music and the realities of life as a touring musician, a mother of three young children, a cookbook author and a successful podcaster (“Table Manners,” co-hosted by her mother, Lennie, is in its 15th season).

“What’s Your Pleasure?,” an album designed for escape, gave her music career a jolt. Her fifth LP — “That! Feels Good!,” out Friday — is a sequel of sorts, but the earlier album’s synth thump is joined by a new dimension: soulful, brassy warmth, often thanks to Kokoroko, an eight-piece band. “I’ve always longed to make soul music,” Ware said. “I’ve done bits and bobs of it, but this felt very focused and authentic.”

Scrolling through a list of cultural influences on her phone in the bar of a New York hotel, Ware debated what to include. “You think Fran Lebowitz would be my friend if I put her in the Top 10?” she asked, before deciding, “She wouldn’t want to be my friend because I’m on my phone too much.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

1

Photo Booths

I’m constantly trying to make my phone take pictures that look old and romantic, and the photo booth just does that. And also the fact that you can’t change it — I like that, and that they’re these four pictures that can take you back to a nostalgic moment. My husband did a photography degree but he’s [expletive] at taking photos of me: terrible angles, manages to always take them when my eyes are half open. What I’ve just started doing is taking selfies of myself, but pretending that I’m being caught off guard so that I can get really good photos with my children.

2

‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’

It’s dirty and naughty and I probably should be doing something else, but I’m there, invested in the Kathy and Kyle drama. And I love it. It centers me. And my husband walks in and he’s like, What are you watching? And I’m like, Don’t judge me, these are really important women that are telling very important stories and they’re very entertaining. I love Mauricio. I live for the moments when he’s stoned. Dorit has really grown on me, I think she’s got real wit. I really miss Lisa Vanderpump. I loved her.

3

Eggs

Because they’re versatile. Because you can have them at any meal. Because I wrote a book called “Omelet.” They solve a lot of problems. I feel at home with an egg anywhere. I said this in my book, but if there was a crisis, my mum would be like, “Do you want an omelet, darling?” So it became like this thing where like my brother was like, I don’t want a [expletive] omelet.

4

My Saved Places on Google Maps

I hate missing out on good food in a new place. It’s kind of slightly stressful. When we were on holiday for our honeymoon, I wasn’t a bridezilla, I was a honeymoonzilla. But I didn’t have the Google Maps saved lists that could have made my life easier. So when I’m on tour, I save places that people recommend. It’s so good for being able to work out your route for the day, like, I’m going to go to this coffee shop, then I’m going to go to the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires, and then I’m going to walk from there.

5

Matinees

Jamie Lee Curtis said that whole thing about like, Why doesn’t Coldplay do a matinee? I completely agree with her. Apparently Little Mix have always been doing matinees. Much respect to them. The idea of going onstage at 9 p.m. sometimes fills me with total dread, when I’m usually in my pajamas watching “Real Housewives” or something. Can you call a lunch a matinee? Anything that’s, like, in the day. Then you have time to digest it, understand it, enjoy it. But also time for that eight hours sleep.

6

Handwritten Letters

I don’t do it enough, but I appreciate them so much. And handwritten cards. Emails, I’m over it, I know that that’s how we function. Text messages, I get it. But there’s nothing more thoughtful than a handwritten letter. I think I read that Reese Witherspoon did this, but I write my children a letter every year. They’ve all got their own book, and I write them a letter, mainly so I can remember what they did in the year. Because I know that when they get to like, 21, then they’re going to ask me and I’ll be like, I don’t know what your first word was.

7

Musicals

It’s kind of where I began singing. It’s something that’s really inspired how I make music — that idea of escapism and the idea of melodrama combined with emotion. I like that fantasy aspect of it, that it can kind of elevate. If you say you hate musical theater, I’m going to question our friendship, because I don’t believe that you’ve gone to see good enough musical theater.

8

‘The Traitors’

I’m talking about the first season of the British series. If anybody played the game at university called Mafia, where you have to say who the killer is and they have to kill other people whilst you’re like, staring? The premise is that, and we would all be very rich if whilst we were getting stoned at uni, we thought that could be a great format for television.

9

Foreign Pharmacies

There was a time when you could get Valium in India when I was in my 20s. That was a fantastic time. But also for the products, particularly in the French pharmacies, the beauty products. I mean, you can now get Bioderma everywhere now, but there was a time where everybody would come back from Fashion Week with loads of Bioderma. I love perusing the aisles of a foreign pharmacy and getting any kind of insect repellent, sunglasses, chewing gum.

10

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge, or the Knockoff

I got it for my husband for Christmas, but I wear it. It’s obscenely expensive. One day my beautician came ’round to give me a wax, and I said, “You smell really good!” She went, “Oh babe, I got it in Zara.” I was like, You’re kidding me. Zara has done a knockoff, so you don’t need to spend the bloody amount of money that I did. It smelled exactly the same.